I've been toying around with ideas for some characters lately and I've come up with something that I'm surprised I didn't think about before.

The party consists of some heavy fighters that are slow (Humphrey, Viktor, Kwanda, Pesmerga, Fu Su Lu, pick your poison). Then, you take Krin and add him to them mix.

Yes, Krin. His face and his "hee hee hee" may be annoying, and his stats are very poor, but there's one place he accels in: Speed. On average, by the end of the game, he'll have more speed than anyone else in the game, except Kasumi and Stallion.

Now, the reason I'm talking about Krin is because one of the main disadvantages to using those heavy fighters is their lack of speed. The enemy usually gets to attack first, which leaves you needing to heal, ect. And I know people just tend to use the Unite Attacks or magic to quickly wipe the field, but I thought I'd take it from a different perspective. No Kai, no abuse of runes, no Wild Arrow Attack, ect.

Krin has one major advantage over Kasumi and Stallion in this situation: He can equip a rune while they have theirs permanently affixed. Which means they can't equip the Spark Rune. With that on Krin, suddenly Fu Su Lu is attacking right after McDohl instead of at the end of the round, and Kwanda is keeping up with Yam Koo and Kasumi.

McDohl is there simply because he has to be. Krin has the Spark Rune equipped, and for the extra boost two Speed Runes. The L-Range Magic User can be whoever you wish. Cleo has better physical stats and access to stronger armor, Rubi is a mix between Cleo and Tengaar, Tengaar is more magically oriented, Eileen has incredible magic, ect. Pick your favorite.

Kwanda is there because he's, in my opinion, the best M-range defensive character in the game. With the proper equipment on them, Kwanda has a good 50+ defense over Fu Su Lu, Pesmerga, Varkas, ect, his Skill is higher than some of the others (from my personal experience at least), his Luck doesn't suffer and he's still got the power to match the others.

Humphrey is there for one reason over another heavy tank: He has a Unite Attack with Krin. Odd, yes, but it utilizes the other good aspect about Krin, and makes him a better choice for a Spark-Speedster than Kage, Clive, Yam Koo, ect. Alone, Krin will deal much less damage than those mentioned, and Humphrey has the same accuracy problem that the other tanks do, but the Unites tend to be unavoidable, so this makes a good choice for the both of them. Plus, it gives you a Holy Rune user in Humphrey if you're not going to make him a Killer/Clone-user.

The final slot is left for your favorite tank, front-range fighter or magic user. Just note that the theme of this party is to utilize those incredibly slow but powerful front-line fighters by making them as fast as the wind, but go with what you want.

As for a final party, mine would look like this:

Front Row: Humphrey/Flik/KwandaBack Row: McDohl/Krin/Viktor

Really, you don't need magic aside from the occasional Flowing Rune spell, and since Flik takes care of magic casting quite well, he gets the Flowing Rune. Kwanda takes a Killer, and Humphrey takes the Holy (or whatever you want if you don't care for the dash). Viktor is a back row healer, with Mega Medicines, and uses the Clone Rune to attack when he's not healing single targets. When Flik is healing the entire field, he either defends or Clone Runes.

Of course, using Krin in this method is optional if you prefer to use someone with better stats than Krin, but his speed will always be naturally higher than Kage and Clive, who are more-than-likely the next selected candidates. However, they don't have a Unite with Humphrey, which makes Krin the better choice.

i'll have to argue that Spark Rune is pretty useless, even with a team of slow and strong fighters... first reason is Soul Eater can take care of most of your random battles if you are planning on heading straight to the boss (less fights with less steps), and second reason is that attack order won't matter much in the final boss battle. third, even if your characters took damage you can just bring some medicines or use 1 magic spell to heal up.

secondly, Krin is too weak to be useful. you don't need to really be the fastest... you can use a stronger character with average speed for most situations and still go before the enemies... against the ninja enemies you might want to give some speed boosts, but they're not a big deal.

... oh yeah, and considering you can only bring 2 slow guys as well as Krin at the end of the game, it's really not worth it. i'd rather be abusing the Bumpy Attack (Krin + Humphrey) with your party than have Krin equip a Spark Rune and force him to do a regular attack just so Humphrey and others can attack earlier.

While Kwanda may be a good defensive character, that doesn't say anything about magic defense. the advantages of both Fu Su Lu and Varkas is that they can unite with their buddies to deal major damage. the Kobold+1 Attack is something like 3x damage and Bandit Attack is 2.5x (still awesome)... that's a hell of a better output than Kwanda, who can't unite with anyone.

i like it though it probably more useful on s2/3 but nonetheless its cool and better then the whoose better cleo/rubi/tengaar/eileen debates, anyway s1 is fairly easy you could probably use anyone. i do hate krin though....

'Believed the evidence of your own eyes, did ya? In a place like this?' Granny Weatherwax

Yeah, I have to concede that your points are valid, but the idea I posted regarding Krin gives you a reason to use him. Krin is absolute trash when it comes to the majority of the characters, but part of the fun of the game is that there's at least 60 characters that you can use in battle, and each one has their advantages and disadvantages. It gives one of the worst characters in the game a reason to be used.

Now, if we were talking about Juppo, Antonio, or Sansuke, then there's no argument. Those characters are just downright useless. Even Juppo's Trick Rune is trash because of how low his attack is, it's permanently stuck on him and there are several other command runes in the game that do much better than his.

I think Krin's best use is just to get Humphrey to attack faster with the unite and deal more damage with Humphrey's high ATK power. Like I said, you can give plenty of slower characters the Spark Rune and they will deal more damage and still always attack before the enemy.

1.Grenseal, he is the best character in the game for me2.Alen, I'm lacking other characters that can actually deal decent damage3.Pesmerga, same reason as Alen4.Sonya, she looks beautiful5.Luc, I can't live without Luc. I always bring him throughout my journey

Last edited by gildedtalon on Tue Mar 30, 2010 2:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

Front row:Pesmerga, you can't go wrong with a knight in black armour.Viktor, his attitude and fighting skills is a true pleasure.Flik, the blue lightning, i love the character, how he builds up, and that he's a good melee fighter with a nice magic capability just makes it a win win.

Back row:Tir, for obvious reasons.Luc, he's awesome, stick a flowing rune in his hands and you'll never be unsafe again.Crowley, stick a nice powerful rune in his hands, and you'll see some big hits pop up on the screen.

Most of these have been mentioned except Rubi and Tengaar...who are similar to Cleo. Tengaar has even more magic.With this group it's pretty much impossible to die...and you get to see all the different magic unites which can be fun to produce.I think the Fire/Lightning one is the strongest whereas the Fire/Earth one is a little cooler looking. Though the Water/Lightning is also pretty freaking sweat since it both does tons of damage and heals completely (to include reviving).

For the regular battles...you can pretty much always auto...IF you get low on HP - which pretty much never happens, you have tons of healing sitting there with Rubi...but you shouldn't need it (I didn't)...the sunbeam heals your entire party as you walk...as well as an additional 5 for Viktor.

I would like to give props to TirMcDohl who posted before me about using Futch...he is pretty much my favorite character.

I'd also like to add some other good charactersKwanda (INSANE defense)...Insane...he gets hit for 1 against even the enemies at the end. (Magic sucks though so he still needs healing :/)Luc/Crowley -- Of course if you want the best magic you can get it with these guys...I find that you just don't need that much though. I'd rather use the characters like Tengaar/Rubi/Cleo who can cast almost as much but are actually USEFUL in regular battles.Valeria/Ronnie Bell/Kasumi all three are very similar in their own unique ways, but are all great.Pesmerga/Fu Su Lu...not quite as awesome in battle, but cool dudes. In Suiko 2, though, Pesmerga is a freak.Camille is pretty good at a lot...didn't ever really use her, but she's good.

LastlyCleo can be switched with Kirkis (who I forgot to mention) for the wild arrow attack with Rubi, because he's a little weaker than Cleo for the most part, but the unite is nice...(though I think Cleo is a better fire magic user so you might give Rubi the Rage and Kirkis the Flowing).